putrefy
verb/ˈpjutɹəfaɪ/
Etymology From Middle French putréfier.
1
To fester or rot and exude a fetid stench.
2
To become filled with a pus-like or bile-like substance.
3
To reach an advanced stage of decomposition.
- In the Middle Ages, for instance, a recipe for sex stimulation required the putrefied flesh of a human corpse, together with both human and animal testes and ovaries, pimento, and alcohol.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 14:
4
To become gangrenous.
5
To make morbid, carious, or gangrenous.
- to putrefy an ulcer or wound
6
To corrupt; to make foul.
- Private suits do putrefy the public good.1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Suitors”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
- They would but stink, and putrefy the air.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vii]:
- Derived terms
- putrefiable, putrefier, unputrefied